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Ali Irsan Found Guilty

On Thursday, July 26, a jury of peers deliberated for only 35 minutes and found Ali Irsan guilty of murder in the death of his son-in-law and his daughter’s friend. We highlighted some of the trial in an earlier post found here. Since our wrap up, Irsan took to the stand, going against his lawyers at NS Texas Law‘s advice. He declared that he was not involved in the murders of Coty Beavers and Gelareh Bagherzadeh and that he was a devout Muslim who wanted his daughters to focus on school.

The defense tried to paint Irsan as an overprotective father but not who was not angry enough to kill. In the cross-examination by the prosecutors tried to show that because he is a devout Muslim that his daughter marrying a Christian was dishonor on his family.

What was really shocking is during the sentencing portion of the trial, when the prosecutors call witnesses to testify about past crimes they say were committed by Irsan in order for the jury to determine whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole. The most shocking was the testimony of his daughter Nerseen Irsan. In her testimony, she claimed that her father disapproved of her older sister’s marriage in 1999 so he murdered her husband and made it look like self-defense. Her testimony also went on to include her violent home life including details about how her father beat his 12 children with garden hoses, electrical cords, and boards.

He beat me. He slapped me around and called me names. He would punch me, kick me, hit me with sticks.

This Monday on August 6, the defense hand their turn to call witnesses to the stand to testify on behalf of Irsan. They portrayed him as a generous, doting and loyal as they tried to persuade jurors to make his sentence life imprisonment over the death penalty. His lawyers have not determined if Irsan will take the stand in his sentencing hearing.